Or will nonprofit arts organizations choose to fight back for their communities? Whippersnappers do not know about “Duck and Cover.” Which is why it serves as an option for your company’s future. Not a good one, mind you, but I’m sure you’re considering it. “Duck and Cover” was a thing. In fact, the Defense Department made a whole movie about it in 1951. This … [Read more...] about “Duck and Cover” — Is That Your Motto for the Next 46 Months?
Community
When People Are Losing Everything, Is Protecting Art Always Important?
The fires in Los Angeles have been brutal. Billions, if not trillions, will be needed. And the posh Getty Villa in posh Malibu, originally owned by and named for climate destruction activist, became a giant, vacuum-sealed symbol. It raises complex questions. I was born in Los Angeles. And while we lived in Pacoima when I was born, most of my childhood was spent in Beverly … [Read more...] about When People Are Losing Everything, Is Protecting Art Always Important?
Nonprofit Arts Organizations: If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em? Really?
With an empowered anti-arts, anti-education, and anti-culture base running the country, this is the time to commit to your community, not fall into the trap of cancelling them. It’s all gone topsy-turvy. We live in New America now. Ironically, the group that wanted to “Make America Great Again” has moved the country in a completely different direction than ever. We … [Read more...] about Nonprofit Arts Organizations: If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em? Really?
The Case for Support: Voices of Our City Choir Uses Art to Succeed Where Other Arts Organizations Fear to Tread
In San Diego, one nonprofit arts organization has taken it upon itself to provide paths to success for a community whose lives exist below the sightline of typical arts audiences: the unhoused. There is a lazy maxim about unhoused people in San Diego, California. It is the idea that if people were to choose to be homeless, they might as well be homeless in San … [Read more...] about The Case for Support: Voices of Our City Choir Uses Art to Succeed Where Other Arts Organizations Fear to Tread
The Case for Support: Arts Capacity Walks the Walk Among Nonprofit Arts Organizations
First, they define the community. Then ask what they need, not what they want. Finally, they don’t confuse it with some irrelevant “artistic vision.” Why isn’t yours doing that? One of the great bugaboos of the nonprofit arts industry is that, while it must be responsive and responsible to the communities in which each individual charity operates, the definition of … [Read more...] about The Case for Support: Arts Capacity Walks the Walk Among Nonprofit Arts Organizations